As a matter of fact he's a never-ending source of drama and outrage, all of which are his own opinions. His repair channel isn't even about repair anymore, it's all drama, all the time. I can hardly believe people fall for his shtick anymore.
90% of his content is about advocating for consumer rights like ownership and repair, most of which is documented and sourced on his wiki [1]. If the only thing you see here is "drama and outrage" then you're not the target audience and you should return to mindless consumption until such a time that you find yourself affected.
When you care so little about consumer rights that you see advocacy as just "drama" then what are you if not a mindless consumer, in the most literal sense?
This story is at the heart of everything that's wrong with consumer rights these days - digital locks, coercive upgrades, removing features after the sale, AGPL violations, and legal bullying of independent developers, enthusiasts, and hackers.
The original title was needlessly inflammatory, Louis put up $10,000 to cover this person's legal fees should they fight Bambu's bullshit threats. It's in all of our interests to fight this, as consumers and as members of HACKER news.
They never said they don't care about consumer right, but that your over the top comments and ad hominem attacks smell more of drama than of consumer rights. I hope I never produce the words "return to mindless consuming" just because someone dared to criticize my idol. Ditto for "when you care so little about consumer rights". Pretentiousness is not a virtue.
dns_snek never said any specific person as a mindless consumer. They argued that if you see nothing but drama then that implies you are a mindless consumer.
The argument is that a mindful consumer would see that Louis Rossman is, in his way, arguing for consumer rights.
> They never said they don't care about consumer right
They didn't need to. Describing it as "just" drama means that you find the subject matter performative and unwarranted, that's what makes something "just drama".
> I hope I never produce the words "return to mindless consuming" just because someone dared to criticize my idol
I invoked "mindless consumption" because of how ridiculously dismissive they were acting towards the discussion about consumer rights, i.e. mindful consumption.
Criticize him all you want, but don't get upset when someone calls you out for criticizing a baseless straw man.
It would be difficult to judge me as being upset because of your criticism since I've never responded to your criticism before.
And for not needing to say it: actually yes it is needed. Nobody said consumer rights are performative, it was said that Rossmann is performative and trying to generate drama and clicks. Even if not true, it's a valid opinion that doesn't make anyone a mindless consumer, quite the opposite. But regardless, those are not the same things, unless you see Rossmann (and possibly yourself) as the gatekeeper of this issue.
It may be advocacy for a noble cause, but it is still drama and outrage. It is an effective technique used by politicians worldwide. If it works, I guess that's a positive, but that's not for me.
Lois Rossmann has always been ranting in his video, but originally he did so while repairing Macbooks. I actually learned a few tricks watching his videos. Now, he is just sitting down talking, adding drama and outrage to news stories relevant to what he advocates for.
I mean, we need people like him, like we need people like Richard Stallman, but I personally prefer more nuanced approaches.
I have trouble understanding how the opinions of the historical right to repair guy are surprising or even considered drama, it’s not drama because it’s not interpersonal gossip, it’s right to repair activism.
The channel has been about a lot more than right to repair. He jumps on every tech controversy that will generate traffic, including wading into drama between other YouTube channels.
> it’s not drama because it’s not interpersonal gossip, it’s right to repair activism.
He has definitely engaged in dramas that have nothing to do with right to repair activism, including weighing in on dramas between other tech YouTubers.
He hit a niche with right to repair and has produced a lot of content about it, but he has also ranted about a lot of completely unrelated topics. Does nobody remember his old videos rambling about women and gender topics, for example? This is going way back, so possibly before many new converts were introduced to his channel.
His channel has definitely not only been right to repair.
Right up there with the Not Just Bikes guy on YouTube who used to talk about how transit-oriented cities are great or would show some positive stuff from somewhere. Now it's just endless videos about how cars suck, cities suck, even a lot of transit sucks. The constant negativity is such a put-off.
The difference is that the Not Just Bikes guy is actually doing what the parent commenter is claiming Louis (only) does and Louis in reality does a lot more than that like what's in TFA.
Not Just Bikes makes reddit posts for redditors in YouTube form, basically. Louis actually supports people and projects. There's no 'schtick', consumer repair is core to his business and his channel.
Yeah I agree, it’s almost a political drama channel at this point and his opinions lack nuance.
I don’t understand why an article from Tom’s Hardware about an opinion of Louis Rossman who tells a 3D printer maker to go fuck themselves is currently the most upvoted article on HN.
And yet he’s having an effect. Are either of you pledging $10k to defend hackers in court?
I can hardly believe headlines like these are met with anything but cheers. It’s literally the hacker spirit in the classical sense: a big company is trying to legally threaten a project offline, and people like Louis are helping prevent that.
You could at least throw in a “it’s cool that he’s pledging money” before insulting his channel. And if his channel wasn’t as political as it is, it’s doubtful he could rally the kind of support we’re seeing here.
The comment at the top of this thread was literally defending Rossmann based on his style (passionate, vulnerable) over his substance (factual accuracy)
> My point is that I have an issue with his tone and rhetoric, not with the thing he’s advocating.
This is often a hand wavy excuse by people who simply don’t agree with a cause and/or think it’s not important, but won’t admit it. If you don’t think what he is advocating for is important just say so. If you do, support him. You can’t possibly believe he’s so out of line that it’s worth prioritizing that opinion over the cause itself.
To be clear: I really do agree with his message, and I appreciate the tremendous impact he has had in the right to repair, DRM and all these things. So in that sense, I support him.
It’s just that his style is really appalling to me. Am I not allowed to criticize his style while at the same time supporting his stance?
I think it’s unfair to then imply I must not be admitting that I’m against his cause and using it as an excuse, because nothing I have said indicated this.
I don’t doubt that but the issue is you’re doing the work for detractors when you put more emphasis on his an exact approach rather than focusing on the quality of the cause and the fruits of his efforts.
I, for one, appreciate communication that has a point of view, one that actually champions an ethical opinion and calls out unethical behavior. I don't think doing this necessarily counts as rage. If I wanted to read a "proper" dry, impartial dissertation on some technology, written by Spock, there are plenty of places online to do this.
I am completely against the outrage and drama cycle of all media. But as a matter of fact, this is clearly what drives views in today’s world so it’s nice when someone consistently getting millions of views at least chooses to support something good once in a while.
I much prefer channels that don’t use this way of gaining views, but they, because of that, don’t gain nearly as many views.
I have no skin in this game, but it’s pretty clear what the majority of viewers want.
His passion does manifest as drama 90% of the time, but it’s somewhat necessary to build momentum and attention to the causes that he promotes.
Also, he has to toe the line of opinion to avoid being slapped with spurious legal challenges.
I often find him a bit much myself, but don't doubt his passion, and even if I did, I would only express that opinion publicly accompanied by supporting evidence, because using phrases like "people fall for his shtick" is essentially implying deliberate fraud, and that doesn't seem to be something you should throw around lightly.
I don't think an opinion becomes more based in reality by sticking the words "As a matter of fact" in front of them.
Although I have to say, I think Louis was making better videos when he was in New York. I understand the financial situation where New York really abuses people, but I am just looking at the videos. I can't say whether that decision was what changed, but I noticed that the content changed a lot once he relocated outside of New York.
However had, I disagree with the "drama" comment. I would call it more that the movement became more important, which is fine, in my opinion. Right to repair isn't that different from many other movements where we people try to get more rights back again. See the right to videotape public officials in performing their public jobs and so on. It is all connected.
you’re making me wonder if i should start using the term financial abuse to describe the excessive rent seeking behaviour of landlords that bleed us dry
When there is drama as far as I can tell he always had pretty solid reasons to be dramatic. It isn't drama when you have real reasons. Drama implies making shit up. Point to the shit he made up. Go ahead. Be specific.
Your accusation there makes it sound like he makes up some minor personal issues and blows them up as rage bait. As if the lock in and enshittification he advocates against are just his personal opinion. They are not. The vast majority (last time I checked >80%) of the public shares the opinion that you should own the equipment you buy and that it should be repairable.
If you happen to be a person that tries to establish neo-feudalism at the cost of everybody else, a public figure successfully making that an issue, might be problematic for your goals, sure. But then your goals may just be beneath contempt anyways and you should working on becoming a productive member of society instead.
If you think it is a shtick because you haven't really looked into it that much and you have a contrarian reflex, maybe try to bring the receipts next time. You know, like:" Louis Rossmann is a drama queen because remember when he said X about Y? Remember when he said Y about Z? It turned out to be Q and Louis had to know it was Q" etc.
Rossmann turned his YouTube fame into political advocacy for a popular topic, that he politically represents. Don't like that topic? Don't watch his content. People change and so does the focus of their life.
I run an university electronics workshop and the issues he mentioned are the issues I have to deal with every week, be it some shitty vendor lock-in on some gear or equipment where just the part that dies first is proprietary and service-hostile.
It isn't necessarily but I think it often qualifies. IMO (approximately) activism describes motivation while drama is a characteristic of an action. Thunberg for example is undoubtedly very dramatic.
Thank you. My Bambu printer works excellently. The previous one I bought years ago is still going strong with a friend now. When parts wear out, I can easily get official, known quality replacements.
I have never had a problem with the software, the outrage is totally manufactured to have something to complain about. Louis was fun to listen to for a while, but his schtick is so tired now.
Your off-topic remarks about Bambu printers and their replacement parts tell me that you didn't even take the time to read what this story was about. In the same breath you're accusing Louis of "manufacturing outrage just to have something to complain about" while you're the one doing that.
[1] https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Main_Page